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History of VINCI
DESCRIPTION OF THE ISSUER
VINCI ("VINCI" or the "Group"), originally named Société Générale d'Entreprise ("SGE"), was created in
1908. SGE experienced strong growth in the years preceding World War I. It contributed to France's defence
efforts during the war and to the country's reconstruction afterwards. In the 1920s and 1930s, SGE's main
area of growth was electrical power, but the nationalization of SGE's electrical power assets in 1946 forced it
to redeploy into building and civil engineering. In the post-war decades, SGE became the leader in France in
civil engineering.
In 1966, SGE became part of Compagnie Générale d'Electricité (now named Alcatel-Lucent). In 1970, it
developed motorway concessions and, along with GTM, a French construction company, was one of the
founders of Cofiroute, which was set up to finance, build and operate the A10 (Paris-Poitiers) and A11
(Paris-Le Mans) motorways.
In 1984, the then French state-owned Compagnie de Saint-Gobain became SGE's majority shareholder and
launched a wide-ranging restructuring process as part of which SGE became a holding company, whose
main subsidiary Sogea resulted from the merger of SGE-BTP and Saint-Gobain’s construction business and
focused on construction.
In 1988, after it was privatized, Saint-Gobain sold its controlling interest in SGE to Compagnie Générale des
Eaux.
During the period from 1996 to 1999, SGE reorganized its activities around four core businesses:
concessions, energy, roads and construction. Over the same period, the SGE group pursued a policy of
external growth, focusing on recurring and value added businesses: in 1999, the SGE group thus launched a
successful friendly takeover bid on Sogeparc, the then French market leader in car park concessions.
In 2000, Compagnie Générale des Eaux (by then renamed Vivendi) sold most of its shares in SGE to
institutional investors. SGE changed its name to VINCI and launched a friendly takeover bid on GTM and
the subsequent merger of VINCI and GTM in December 2000 gave rise to the world's leader in concessions,
construction and related services.
In 2001, Vivendi Universal (now named Vivendi) and Suez (now named GDF-Suez), GTM's former
majority shareholder, both withdrew from VINCI's capital. Sogeparc and Parcs GTM were merged to form
VINCI Park, the largest car park operator in Europe.
In 2002, VINCI entered the CAC 40 index on the Paris Stock Exchange and acquired 17 per cent. of the
French motorway operator Autoroutes du Sud de la France (ASF) when the French government decided to
sell 49 per cent. of ASF's shares to the public.
In 2003 and 2004, VINCI raised its stake in ASF to 23 per cent. and in 2005, VINCI acquired the State’s and
Autoroutes de France's stake in ASF's capital. Thereafter, VINCI successfully launched a standing market
offer, thereby increasing its stake to more than 95 per cent. of ASF. The acquisition of ASF was completed
on 6 November 2006 with the squeeze out of ASF's remaining shareholders allowing VINCI to hold 100 per
cent. of ASF.
In recent years, the Group has built up its Contracting business, with such major deals as the acquisitions of
Soletanche Bachy, Entrepose Contracting and Taylor Woodrow in Construction; and of Cegelec in Energy,
to mention the most important of these.
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